What do you think?
Rate this book
Radix #2
In Other Worlds
One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer spontaneously combusts! His body transforms into light, mysteriously snatched from his banal life by an alien intelligence 130 billion years in the future. There, all spacetime is collapsing into a cosmic black hole, the Big Crunch – and a bold, cosmic destiny awaits Carl. Rebuilt from the remnants of his light by extraterrestrials for a cryptic purpose, he awakens in time’s last world, the strangest of all – the Werld.
At the edge of infinity, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the floating islands of the Werld. The Foke teach him how to live – and love – at the end of time, and he loses his heart to his plucky guide, the beautiful Evoë. Their life together in this blissful kingdom that knows no aging or disease brings them to rapture – until Evoë falls prey to the zōtl, a spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat the chemical by-products of their pain. In order to save his beloved from a gruesome death, Carl must return to Earth – 130 billion years earlier – where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he’s come back to is not the one he left.
Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zōtl find him and begin ravishing the Earth?
At the edge of infinity, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the floating islands of the Werld. The Foke teach him how to live – and love – at the end of time, and he loses his heart to his plucky guide, the beautiful Evoë. Their life together in this blissful kingdom that knows no aging or disease brings them to rapture – until Evoë falls prey to the zōtl, a spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat the chemical by-products of their pain. In order to save his beloved from a gruesome death, Carl must return to Earth – 130 billion years earlier – where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he’s come back to is not the one he left.
Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zōtl find him and begin ravishing the Earth?
211 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
18 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
A.A. Attanasio
47 books360 followersI’m a novelist and student of the imagination living in Honolulu. Fantasies, visions, hallucinations or whatever we call those irrational powers that illuminate our inner life fascinate me. I’m particularly intrigued by the creative intelligence that scripts our dreams. And I love carrying this soulful energy outside my mind, into the one form that most precisely defines who we are: story.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 13, 2022
All right! This was definitely a blast. Carl was definitely a lot more likable than the last MC and it was funny, getting the whole spontaneous-combustion/fish-out-of-water treatment.
I think what I liked most about this was the full SF explanation treatment right after the burn-up, letting us revel in the really wild end of the universe stuck in a bubble of reconstructed space in the heart of a Big-Crunch super black hole with reconstructed energy spores of people from the deep past of memory. :)
As I was reading, I was very "Oh, NEAT" on this. Hard SF right off, after character intro, and then some wild ass worldbuilding with cool alien godlike intelligences, and then WHAM back home for the fun of it but it's not HIS Earth at all.
And through all this, I thought it was a great adventure romp. Very old-school AND hardcore SF at the same time. A very pleasant surprise. :)
I think what I liked most about this was the full SF explanation treatment right after the burn-up, letting us revel in the really wild end of the universe stuck in a bubble of reconstructed space in the heart of a Big-Crunch super black hole with reconstructed energy spores of people from the deep past of memory. :)
As I was reading, I was very "Oh, NEAT" on this. Hard SF right off, after character intro, and then some wild ass worldbuilding with cool alien godlike intelligences, and then WHAM back home for the fun of it but it's not HIS Earth at all.
And through all this, I thought it was a great adventure romp. Very old-school AND hardcore SF at the same time. A very pleasant surprise. :)
September 1, 2019
Attanasio's writing never ceases to amaze me. I keep swaying between "Wow! Breathtaking!" and "Ugh! Did he just invent another verb?".
Consider this:
As to his ideas, I'm torn between "Wow! Mindblowing!" and "But why couldn't you elaborate on this a little more? See how David Zindell does it...".
It's an intense experience, always.
Consider this:
At the far end of the chamber, sparks flurried, and the wall crumbled like incandescent cheese. The opening writhed with the arachnid shapes of the zotl, and spurs of crimson laserfire flicked across the chamber at them. One bright bolt scorched the ground nearby and skipped vaporing plasteel between Allin's legs. He stood firm, but his whole body grimaced, anticipating the fleshmelting impact of a laser bolt.
Carl gripped the hilt of the lance and twisted it through a tight series of clicks until it snapped off. A foam of purplesilver light frothed from the muzzle end of the lance, and Carl quickly placed the weapon on the ground. He grabbed Evoe, and with Allin they fled from the zotl attack and the jumping clots of sightcramping radiance.
In an eyeblink, the onrushing zotl and the sharp, crisscrossing tracery of their laserfire vanished in a sheeting flow of white incineration that nothinged everything before it.
As to his ideas, I'm torn between "Wow! Mindblowing!" and "But why couldn't you elaborate on this a little more? See how David Zindell does it...".
It's an intense experience, always.
September 1, 2024
Weirdest hero journey I ever read
June 17, 2024
review of
A. A. Attanasio's In Other Worlds
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 16, 2024
As obsessive as I am about reading SF there's always someone out there I've never heard of. Attanasio's in that category. He's also pretty special. This bk's from the beginning of 1985. I don't usually like to categorize things as from a decade but this struck me as " '80s". There's something about the somewhat dweeby main character who then goes thru fantastic transformations un-sought-for that seems '80s to me. Maybe there's nothing much to substantiate my impression, there're probably such characters throughout, at least, 20th century SF.
There's a Kafka quote near the beginning:
"He who looks does not find,
but he who does not look is found."
Carl is the protagonist. One morning he feels especially good. He doesn't know that it's the beginning of the end of his old life.
"At the corner of Seventh Avenue, a drunk approached him, and he handed over a dollar, appreciating the serene desuetude of the woman's face. Nothing could depress him this morning. And the sight of the place where he worked sparked a smile in him." - p 2
But Carl's experiencing an electrical transformation.
"The rest of the day was a bumbling of small accidents for Carl. The bar's electrical system gave out entirely, and he had to mix drinks by hand and repeatedly go down to the basement cooler for ice. The tiny screws in his eyeglasses popped out, and he lost a lens down an open drain. Napkins clung tenaciously to his fingers, no matter how dry he kept them, and he spilled several drinks before he got used to the paper coasters coming away with his hand. Midway through the dinner shift, with the house jammed, the lights began dimming. When he left the bar to check the fuse box, the light came up only to fade again on his return. "This is weird," Carl at last acknowledged, running both hands through his startled hair. Sparks crackled between his fingers. "I'm going home." He went over to the pay phone to call a neighborhood friend to cover for him, but he couldn't get a dial tone. Moments later a customer used the same phone without difficulty." - p 11
That bit of description, alone, cd've been expanded upon in an interesting way - but the author just keeps accelerating the pace of dramatic change throughout, it's relentless. On a different matter: how long will it be before many people won't even be able to understand what was once commonplace?: a pay phone. Now, when are cell toilets going to replace pay ones?
"The energy flux was so great that Carl's body of light shrank smaller than the fine structure of spacetime itself—and he fell through the fabric of our reality into the seething superspace of quantal-tunnels, spume, and foam—perhaps to expand again in another universe. This is the ghost hole theory. A saner phrase than Nothing. But really, it's just as senseless." - p 20
See what I mean?! This is over the top. Gotta love it. Carl reincarnates in another reality.
" "How come I feel I should be?"
" "Perhaps because you are, at this moment, bodiless."
" "And you call that alive?" The propinquity of madness alarmed him. "Where am I? I can't see myself."
" "You are inside me. I am reshaping you. To even begin to understand how this is possible, you must know something about my world. I live in a special region inside the cosmic black hole at the end of time. The universe around me is small and hot. Spacetime has long ago completed its expansion, braked, and begun to fall back on itself.["] " - p 23
Note that that's only 3pp later than the last quote. Carl has come a long way. Eventually, Carl has to return to his old existence, sortof, to get pig manure for the creature that reincarnated him.
" "There are no zötl on earth," Carl told the eld skyle.
" "There will be while you're there. The inertial displacement of your lynk will almost certainly be detected by the zötl scanner in Galgul. Your lynk, for the ten weeks that it is operating, will be an open corridor between the Werld and earth. Not just zötl can follow it to earth but any of the creatures here in the Werld who might accidentally pass through the Werld's lynk maze."
" "Isn't that a bit risky for earth and the four billion like me there? I mean, the zötl have needlecraft and laser cannon—and they eat us. Isn't there some other—safer—way to get your pig manure?" " - p 81
Good question, right? After all, the author cd've written it any damned why he liked, he's 'God', but, of course, humanity has to be threatened in order for it to be thrilling. As for the "four billion" in 1985? Less than 40 yrs later it's reputed to be 8.1 billion. Well, at least that's not my fault.
"Through a spell of sinewed time, Carl struggled with the thought of endangering the earth, until memories of Evoë in the claret light of Midwerld swarmed him. AND—with trepidation clanging in him—he decided to gamble the entire human race against Chaos for the love of a woman." - p 83
So, THAT'S WHY the population is currently 8.1 billion. I mean, I love to fuck too but.. SHEESH!
"He leveled his most earnestly friendly stare on Zeke. "You still believe the—'Field' sustains you?"
" "Call it the earth's biomagnetic field, if you prefer that nomenclature. But that, too, is a misnomer. The Field interpenetrates all spacetime. Here in the solar biopause we call it life. But when you're aware of the Field, you see that everything is living—rocks, atoms, even the vacuum." " - p 113
Hylozoism, I'm inclined that way. Imagine going thru yr day talking to EVERYTHING. Of course, the unimaginative, the norms, wd call you crazy. Carl returns to an earth parallel ot the one he left, one where his friend Zeke has been institutionalized for having figured out what happened to Carl. Earth 2, Carl calls it. Carl frees Zeke.
"Carl had tried to explain capitalist economy and the motivations of self-interest as well as the tyrannical failure of socialist societies, but that made little sense to Zeke's earth-two mind. Economy to him and in his world was based on human interest, not personal or social interest. Capitalism and communism were both wrong. Human dignity was the only political force that made sense after the Great War, and human dignity was not possible when a few, any few, had power and authority over the many." - p 150
"Anyway, I must have looked sunken, for the good doctor pumped me with iproniazid, and antidepressant that inhibits MAO. MAO regulates the synthesis and utilization of neurotransmitters like serotonin, and it muffles the effect of the methylated tryptamines the doctor is administering to wake me up. With my MAO knocked out, the neurotransmitters proliferate in my brain, amplifying my inner experiences—weirdly.
"The surges I am experiencing are waves of these backed-up methylated tryptamines converting into the substrates for enzymes like N-methyl transferase. Those enzymes not only stimulate the production of more methylated tryptamines, they're also psychotomimetic—they're hallucinogens!" - p 151
I get the impression that the author was heavily involved w/ a philosophical drop-out culture that experimented w/ consciousness expansion induced by drugs. Maybe I'm wrong. If I'm right, it doesn't devalue the writing. At any rate, I'm reminded of the extensive chemistry in John Darnton's The Experiment wch I read & reviewed last mnth:
" "So if the cells only had the enzyme, they'd live longer? That's the theory?"
" "It's not theory. It is demonstrable fact. Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have injected the core of the enzyme-producing gene into human cells. Incidentally, they were able to get the gene by studying our little pond protozoan, which happens to produce huge amounts of telomerase. After they injected it, the telomeres regained their youthful length and the cells kept on dividing happily way beyond their life span. The cells have been rejuvenated." " - p 196
"The moon looked like a Quaalude over the Palisades." pp 169-170
Remember Quaaludes? Once again, that reference marks this bk as an '80s product.
"Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude (/ˈkweɪluːd/ KWAY-lood) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg methaqualone and 25 mg diphenhydramine within the same tablet, mostly in Europe. Commercial production of methaqualone was halted in the mid-1980s due to widespread abuse and addictiveness. It is a member of the quinazolinone class." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methaqu...
I remember enjoying quaaludes very much. Pay particular attn to "Commercial production of methaqualone was halted in the mid-1980s due to widespread abuse and addictiveness." Imagine if all drug companies made responsible decisions like that.
A. A. Attanasio's In Other Worlds
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 16, 2024
As obsessive as I am about reading SF there's always someone out there I've never heard of. Attanasio's in that category. He's also pretty special. This bk's from the beginning of 1985. I don't usually like to categorize things as from a decade but this struck me as " '80s". There's something about the somewhat dweeby main character who then goes thru fantastic transformations un-sought-for that seems '80s to me. Maybe there's nothing much to substantiate my impression, there're probably such characters throughout, at least, 20th century SF.
There's a Kafka quote near the beginning:
"He who looks does not find,
but he who does not look is found."
Carl is the protagonist. One morning he feels especially good. He doesn't know that it's the beginning of the end of his old life.
"At the corner of Seventh Avenue, a drunk approached him, and he handed over a dollar, appreciating the serene desuetude of the woman's face. Nothing could depress him this morning. And the sight of the place where he worked sparked a smile in him." - p 2
But Carl's experiencing an electrical transformation.
"The rest of the day was a bumbling of small accidents for Carl. The bar's electrical system gave out entirely, and he had to mix drinks by hand and repeatedly go down to the basement cooler for ice. The tiny screws in his eyeglasses popped out, and he lost a lens down an open drain. Napkins clung tenaciously to his fingers, no matter how dry he kept them, and he spilled several drinks before he got used to the paper coasters coming away with his hand. Midway through the dinner shift, with the house jammed, the lights began dimming. When he left the bar to check the fuse box, the light came up only to fade again on his return. "This is weird," Carl at last acknowledged, running both hands through his startled hair. Sparks crackled between his fingers. "I'm going home." He went over to the pay phone to call a neighborhood friend to cover for him, but he couldn't get a dial tone. Moments later a customer used the same phone without difficulty." - p 11
That bit of description, alone, cd've been expanded upon in an interesting way - but the author just keeps accelerating the pace of dramatic change throughout, it's relentless. On a different matter: how long will it be before many people won't even be able to understand what was once commonplace?: a pay phone. Now, when are cell toilets going to replace pay ones?
"The energy flux was so great that Carl's body of light shrank smaller than the fine structure of spacetime itself—and he fell through the fabric of our reality into the seething superspace of quantal-tunnels, spume, and foam—perhaps to expand again in another universe. This is the ghost hole theory. A saner phrase than Nothing. But really, it's just as senseless." - p 20
See what I mean?! This is over the top. Gotta love it. Carl reincarnates in another reality.
" "How come I feel I should be?"
" "Perhaps because you are, at this moment, bodiless."
" "And you call that alive?" The propinquity of madness alarmed him. "Where am I? I can't see myself."
" "You are inside me. I am reshaping you. To even begin to understand how this is possible, you must know something about my world. I live in a special region inside the cosmic black hole at the end of time. The universe around me is small and hot. Spacetime has long ago completed its expansion, braked, and begun to fall back on itself.["] " - p 23
Note that that's only 3pp later than the last quote. Carl has come a long way. Eventually, Carl has to return to his old existence, sortof, to get pig manure for the creature that reincarnated him.
" "There are no zötl on earth," Carl told the eld skyle.
" "There will be while you're there. The inertial displacement of your lynk will almost certainly be detected by the zötl scanner in Galgul. Your lynk, for the ten weeks that it is operating, will be an open corridor between the Werld and earth. Not just zötl can follow it to earth but any of the creatures here in the Werld who might accidentally pass through the Werld's lynk maze."
" "Isn't that a bit risky for earth and the four billion like me there? I mean, the zötl have needlecraft and laser cannon—and they eat us. Isn't there some other—safer—way to get your pig manure?" " - p 81
Good question, right? After all, the author cd've written it any damned why he liked, he's 'God', but, of course, humanity has to be threatened in order for it to be thrilling. As for the "four billion" in 1985? Less than 40 yrs later it's reputed to be 8.1 billion. Well, at least that's not my fault.
"Through a spell of sinewed time, Carl struggled with the thought of endangering the earth, until memories of Evoë in the claret light of Midwerld swarmed him. AND—with trepidation clanging in him—he decided to gamble the entire human race against Chaos for the love of a woman." - p 83
So, THAT'S WHY the population is currently 8.1 billion. I mean, I love to fuck too but.. SHEESH!
"He leveled his most earnestly friendly stare on Zeke. "You still believe the—'Field' sustains you?"
" "Call it the earth's biomagnetic field, if you prefer that nomenclature. But that, too, is a misnomer. The Field interpenetrates all spacetime. Here in the solar biopause we call it life. But when you're aware of the Field, you see that everything is living—rocks, atoms, even the vacuum." " - p 113
Hylozoism, I'm inclined that way. Imagine going thru yr day talking to EVERYTHING. Of course, the unimaginative, the norms, wd call you crazy. Carl returns to an earth parallel ot the one he left, one where his friend Zeke has been institutionalized for having figured out what happened to Carl. Earth 2, Carl calls it. Carl frees Zeke.
"Carl had tried to explain capitalist economy and the motivations of self-interest as well as the tyrannical failure of socialist societies, but that made little sense to Zeke's earth-two mind. Economy to him and in his world was based on human interest, not personal or social interest. Capitalism and communism were both wrong. Human dignity was the only political force that made sense after the Great War, and human dignity was not possible when a few, any few, had power and authority over the many." - p 150
"Anyway, I must have looked sunken, for the good doctor pumped me with iproniazid, and antidepressant that inhibits MAO. MAO regulates the synthesis and utilization of neurotransmitters like serotonin, and it muffles the effect of the methylated tryptamines the doctor is administering to wake me up. With my MAO knocked out, the neurotransmitters proliferate in my brain, amplifying my inner experiences—weirdly.
"The surges I am experiencing are waves of these backed-up methylated tryptamines converting into the substrates for enzymes like N-methyl transferase. Those enzymes not only stimulate the production of more methylated tryptamines, they're also psychotomimetic—they're hallucinogens!" - p 151
I get the impression that the author was heavily involved w/ a philosophical drop-out culture that experimented w/ consciousness expansion induced by drugs. Maybe I'm wrong. If I'm right, it doesn't devalue the writing. At any rate, I'm reminded of the extensive chemistry in John Darnton's The Experiment wch I read & reviewed last mnth:
" "So if the cells only had the enzyme, they'd live longer? That's the theory?"
" "It's not theory. It is demonstrable fact. Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have injected the core of the enzyme-producing gene into human cells. Incidentally, they were able to get the gene by studying our little pond protozoan, which happens to produce huge amounts of telomerase. After they injected it, the telomeres regained their youthful length and the cells kept on dividing happily way beyond their life span. The cells have been rejuvenated." " - p 196
"The moon looked like a Quaalude over the Palisades." pp 169-170
Remember Quaaludes? Once again, that reference marks this bk as an '80s product.
"Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude (/ˈkweɪluːd/ KWAY-lood) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg methaqualone and 25 mg diphenhydramine within the same tablet, mostly in Europe. Commercial production of methaqualone was halted in the mid-1980s due to widespread abuse and addictiveness. It is a member of the quinazolinone class." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methaqu...
I remember enjoying quaaludes very much. Pay particular attn to "Commercial production of methaqualone was halted in the mid-1980s due to widespread abuse and addictiveness." Imagine if all drug companies made responsible decisions like that.
February 1, 2017
The second in the four volume so-called “Radix Tetralogy” by A. A. Attanasio, In Other Worlds is a fine action-adventure science fiction novel.
Attanasio, who broke onto the sfnal scene in 1981 with Radix, a Nebula-award nominated book, is a terrific writer, especially in terms of enormous ideas, boundless imagination, and terrific prose that can occasionally spill over into florid shades of the 60s counter culture. Rest assured, however, you’re in good hands.
As with any space epic, there are good guys, bad guys, and a terrific love story. Carl Shirmer is a mild-mannered pub manager from Manhattan that is brought forward 130 billion years to a strange and stunningly beautiful world inside a singularity at the end of time, as the universe collapses on itself. The being that has brought him, the Eld Skyle, explains this new world and Carl eventually encounters a race of humans called the Foke, where he is reluctantly accepted. After a betrayal, he meets a plucky, beautiful woman of the Foke—as was designed from the beginning by the Eld Skyle—and, naturally, they fall in forever with each other.
But enemies and hardship abound and Carl’s love is captured by the bad guys, a spider-like race called the zotl, who thrive on the pain neurotransmitters of sentient beings. To rescue her, Carl must return to Earth on a critical mission for the Eld Skyle, but it’s not quite the Earth he remembers. Yet the people he knew on Earth do remember Carl, and there is a more sinister purpose to their actions this time around.
Will Carl complete his task and save the day? Read it and find out. Unabashedly skewing to pulp, the only reason I didn’t give In Other Worlds five stars is the book is short. I’ve re-read it several times, and it only takes a couple days part-time. Whether this was intended by Attanasio or the exigencies of publishing, things are a bit compressed and seem rushed and not drawn as deeply as in the author’s other work. Still, it’s a blast.
The fact that it’s labeled as part of the Radix Tetralogy is virtually meaningless, as it bears no resemblance to the first volume; Attanasio states that the tetralogy is linked by forces, not narrative. It does, however, introduce some characters and concepts that are much more deeply drawn and realized in the series’ final book, The Last Legends of Earth—one of the three best SF novels I have ever read—but each volume is complete unto itself and you can easily read Last Legends without having read In Other Worlds.
A final word: John Cameron owes Attanasio (and artist Roger Dean and the marvelous Ursula K. LeGuin, among others) at least some acknowledgement, if not royalties. If you read the description of the world Attanasio creates in In Other Worlds (known as the Werld—told you about florid), the sky islands he wrote about in the mid-1980s are so exactly replicated in Avatar, it’s as blatant a ripoff as you will ever find in pop media. But only a fraction of the millions that watched Avatar, I’m certain, ever read In Other Worlds. I feel sorry for those that didn’t.
Attanasio, who broke onto the sfnal scene in 1981 with Radix, a Nebula-award nominated book, is a terrific writer, especially in terms of enormous ideas, boundless imagination, and terrific prose that can occasionally spill over into florid shades of the 60s counter culture. Rest assured, however, you’re in good hands.
As with any space epic, there are good guys, bad guys, and a terrific love story. Carl Shirmer is a mild-mannered pub manager from Manhattan that is brought forward 130 billion years to a strange and stunningly beautiful world inside a singularity at the end of time, as the universe collapses on itself. The being that has brought him, the Eld Skyle, explains this new world and Carl eventually encounters a race of humans called the Foke, where he is reluctantly accepted. After a betrayal, he meets a plucky, beautiful woman of the Foke—as was designed from the beginning by the Eld Skyle—and, naturally, they fall in forever with each other.
But enemies and hardship abound and Carl’s love is captured by the bad guys, a spider-like race called the zotl, who thrive on the pain neurotransmitters of sentient beings. To rescue her, Carl must return to Earth on a critical mission for the Eld Skyle, but it’s not quite the Earth he remembers. Yet the people he knew on Earth do remember Carl, and there is a more sinister purpose to their actions this time around.
Will Carl complete his task and save the day? Read it and find out. Unabashedly skewing to pulp, the only reason I didn’t give In Other Worlds five stars is the book is short. I’ve re-read it several times, and it only takes a couple days part-time. Whether this was intended by Attanasio or the exigencies of publishing, things are a bit compressed and seem rushed and not drawn as deeply as in the author’s other work. Still, it’s a blast.
The fact that it’s labeled as part of the Radix Tetralogy is virtually meaningless, as it bears no resemblance to the first volume; Attanasio states that the tetralogy is linked by forces, not narrative. It does, however, introduce some characters and concepts that are much more deeply drawn and realized in the series’ final book, The Last Legends of Earth—one of the three best SF novels I have ever read—but each volume is complete unto itself and you can easily read Last Legends without having read In Other Worlds.
A final word: John Cameron owes Attanasio (and artist Roger Dean and the marvelous Ursula K. LeGuin, among others) at least some acknowledgement, if not royalties. If you read the description of the world Attanasio creates in In Other Worlds (known as the Werld—told you about florid), the sky islands he wrote about in the mid-1980s are so exactly replicated in Avatar, it’s as blatant a ripoff as you will ever find in pop media. But only a fraction of the millions that watched Avatar, I’m certain, ever read In Other Worlds. I feel sorry for those that didn’t.
January 4, 2015
This was definitely a strange book. Peppered with scientific explanations and riddled with what feel like drug induced revelations the plot gets sidelined and feels rushed to cram everything in to a slim 200 pages.
That being said, I did really like it, Carl and Zeke, best buddies since childhood, feel like real people and gave the book a Vonnegut/Kilgore trout feel.
The second in the Radix series, but linked seemingly only by philosophical threads I did find myself wishing it had gone as broad as the first and taken a little more time and had a few more pages.
That being said, I did really like it, Carl and Zeke, best buddies since childhood, feel like real people and gave the book a Vonnegut/Kilgore trout feel.
The second in the Radix series, but linked seemingly only by philosophical threads I did find myself wishing it had gone as broad as the first and taken a little more time and had a few more pages.
April 1, 2008
This is potentially one of the worst books I have ever come across. Apart from the obviously thoroughly researched scientific facts and formulas (which, by the way, to the common reader don't mean much), the book was a complete waste of time and painful to go through. Actually, it felt like the story itself was stiched togehter in a hurry as a pretext for the author to dazzle us with mathematics, physics and chemistry. Yuk!
May 7, 2016
A brilliant, imaginative book. It has a great mix of action and mind-blowing ideas. My only complaint is that it's too short!
October 5, 2023
Carl Schirmer walked out of the bar he managed and turned into light. Like a wild blend of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, A. A. Attanasio takes us from Earth to the Werld - a universe below Planck length - where spiderlike zotl eat the pain they inflict on humans and floating isles are inhabited by all sorts of ancient aliens 130 billion years in the future. But Carl is able to do something no other resident of the Werld can do - he can obtain 3.5 tonnes of pig shit for an eld. Since the fecal matter has no other eal part in the tale we must assume the author deliberately chose such a shocking prize for a reason - not explained. Carl is sent back to Earth but it is an alternate Earth - Earth 2 - where his best friend Zeke still lives and has penned a science fiction book which describes Carl’s travels in the Werld, (evoking Dick’s The Man In The High Castle) and has been incarcerated in a lunatic asylum. There Carl and his previous employers must somehow hold off the zotl hordes from infesting Earth 2 and rescue Carl’s new beloved Evoë from the monsters back in the Werld. A kaleidoscopic and hallucinogenic ride through the author’s author’s mind. Worth a read!
Read
October 23, 2025130 BILLION YEARS INTO THE FUTURE....One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer spontaneously transforms into light....Then, 130 billion years later, when all of spacetime is collapsing into the vast nothingness of the cosmic black hole, Carl Schirmer is remade from the remnants of his light. He is reborn in time's last world, the strangest of all-the Werld....There, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the floating islands of the Werld. Among them he finds the beautiful Evoë, and their life together is blissful in this kingdom that knows no aging or disease. But it is cut brutally short when Evoë is captured by the zotl, a spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat them in an excrutiating fashion. In order to save her life, Carl must return to Earth-130 billion years earlier-where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he's come back to is not the one he left....Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zotl find him and begin ravishing the Earth?
June 4, 2017
Certainly not the best of this sequence, but there is still an interesting read here - at the very least, it never goes where you expect it to. It could have done with being thicker, allowing themes and ideas to be expanded. Instead it seems rushed, especially toward the end, as if Attansio's heart really wasn't in it. Some of the description, too (and even for Attansio), borders upon -and often achieves- synesthesia, which becomes quite jarring. Enjoyable enough, but rough and, dare I say, ultimately a little pointless.
April 10, 2024
Attanasio's Radix Tetrad is like Philip K. Dick's Valis trilogy; a group of seemingly unrelated stories that are connected by very deep, spiritual themes.
In Other Worlds is probably a better introduction to the Radix books than Radix 1, as it is an easier to read and understand book (while Radix 1 is one of the most difficult and mind-bending things I have ever read). I will say, however, that it isn't as rewarding as the first book.
In Other Worlds is probably a better introduction to the Radix books than Radix 1, as it is an easier to read and understand book (while Radix 1 is one of the most difficult and mind-bending things I have ever read). I will say, however, that it isn't as rewarding as the first book.
July 12, 2023
This is the second of the Radix tetrad, very much related to the final book (Last Legends of Earth). It explains the entanglement with Earth, the zotl, Foke, Rimstalkers, and the Viking connection. A short page-turner of 211 pages that I read in four days. Excellent story which grabs your attention right away and never lets go. The rich use of esoteric vocabulary flies by almost without notice as the narrative is propelled forward.
Being the shortest of the four, and since they are not really related thematically, if you are not yet familiar with Attanasio I might suggest dipping your toes into the waters with this one.
Being the shortest of the four, and since they are not really related thematically, if you are not yet familiar with Attanasio I might suggest dipping your toes into the waters with this one.
April 22, 2023
Imaginative envisioning of multiverse possibilities, but in the end, it’s good vs. evil blasting one another out of existence. The writing is tight, even though the work feels a bit rushed and scattered as if trying to ride the wave of Radix accolades.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2017
Not for me, too many holes in the theory. DNF 40%
June 6, 2018
So far, as I've slowly read the Radix tetrad, I have been blown away by the masterful work of Attanasio. This book is no different. Just read it for yourself, it's worth every moment.
January 1, 2019
Substandard SF. Too much fake sciencey jargon and it didn't ring true.
May 21, 2020
Quite an interesting read, although it covered similar ideas to Radix 1 I was expecting some sort of connection with the first book and there wasn't any at all.
August 9, 2020
This series has always been a magical journey.
July 23, 2022
Significant improvement over Radix on more or less every level. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/200...
July 28, 2023
3.5 stars - SF on LSD this time and get ready for hundreds of english words you've never heard before.
July 21, 2018
Interesting. Strange. Wormholes, black holes, and multidimensional beings in a multiverse. A multiverse that is linked by wormholes, black holes and extra dimensions. Alien life that is very alien, that survives on (eats) strangeness, pain, and other non-physical sources of energy. In the way that plants eat light. Or mites eat skin cells. Or the way some life feeds on the energy of hot vents in the ocean. Strange three dimensional gravity gradients.
Read
May 19, 2020This is the second volume in Attanasio's Radix Tetrad. It is set on the Werld, which is populated by the Foke who live their disease-free lives forever. The hero falls in love with the beautiful Evoe, but then has to deal with the challenge this blissful world faces from the zotl, who feed on the chemical products of the pain they inflict on their victims.
Not remembered not over twenty years alter, but sure sounds like it was fun!
Not remembered not over twenty years alter, but sure sounds like it was fun!
August 29, 2015
Attanasio continues with his Radix series. In this one, he manages to combine an Edgar Rice Burroughs-type world with parallel Earths, and of course his own brand of "I am the universe, and it is me." I don't really mind it, but the way he (frequently) describes it has me skipping over those sections and trying to just get to the plot.
July 12, 2013
I really enjoyed this book, even though I found some of the "gifts" given to the characters to be a little hard to swallow (Jiang's in particular) and will certainly be sampling more of A.A. Attanasio's work in the future.
April 20, 2016
Some great sci fi. Could have been longer, language is rich and at times feels somewhat overdone. But the story is great.
November 27, 2014
I read this ages and ages ago and it blew my mind. Just bought the series and read Radix. Now preparing to read this one again.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews